Mackenzie Health is a regional Canadian healthcare provider with 7 locations serving more than half a million people. At the launch of our BlackBerry Classic device on Wednesday, we announced that Mackenzie will deploy the BlackBerry Classic, BlackBerry Passport and Z30 smartphones along with the latest version of our industry-leading, cross-platform EMM solution, BES12. Read the press release.

“We are eager to add the BlackBerry Classic to our fleet of BlackBerry 10 devices available to our employees. They deal with sensitive information so we need to be assured that our mobile devices comply with strict patient privacy and confidentiality regulations without sacrificing productivity,” said Tam. “Together with BES12, BlackBerry Classic offers us the most secure end-to-end mobile infrastructure for our staff, especially for those who loved the familiar design of their BlackBerry Bold and Curve devices.”

Of course, Mackenzie has many employees who aren’t issued a BlackBerry device for regulatory reasons. For them, Mackenzie has set up a BYOD program to manage several thousand other devices using BES12, which it is rolling out this month, Tam said on stage at our BlackBerry Classic launch on Wednesday. BES12 supports iOS, Android, Windows Phone and, naturally, BlackBerry 10 and BlackBerry OS devices.

Tam hailed the BlackBerry Classic’s 22+ hour battery life. “Our physicians often work very long days. The last thing we want is for their battery to run out.” Mackenzie’s doctors and nurses also hail the Classic’s ergonomics. “My staff tells me that a key enabler of their productivity is the keyboard.”

“BES12 will allow Mackenzie Health to offer their employees choice when it comes to BYOD, but still maintain the data privacy standards required in the healthcare industry,” said Ron Louks, President, Devices and Emerging Solutions at BlackBerry. “With BES12, BlackBerry delivers a secure cross-platform, deeply integrated communications engine for the exchange of health information.”

]]>http://bizblog.blackberry.com/2014/12/hospital-chain-passport-classic-bes12/feed/0mackenziehealth1nadiastolfimackenzie richard tamCase Study: How this Healthcare Provider Avoids the Heartburn of Mobile Regulatory Compliancehttp://bizblog.blackberry.com/2014/07/case-study-healthcare/
http://bizblog.blackberry.com/2014/07/case-study-healthcare/#commentsMon, 21 Jul 2014 17:09:50 +0000http://bizblog.blackberry.com/?p=13874/ Read More]]>Just a couple of years ago during a visit to the hospital, I was surprised to see that pagers were still everywhere I looked. But healthcare has traditionally lagged behind other industries when it comes to mobile technology, mainly because of the risks associated with change. Those risks relate to things like maintaining patient privacy, high internal security standards and regulatory compliance requirements.

Fortunately, this conservative mindset is changing – fast.

“The president of the American telemedicine association said in 2011 that by the end of the decade, a quarter of all care will be delivered virtually, without the doctor and patient in the same place,” points out Will Falk, managing partner of the health industries practice at PwC Canada. “This is a big statement. It means a huge reorganization throughout the healthcare system.”

Case in point: already, more than 100,000 healthcare apps are in play, and they’re showing no sign of letting up. Both doctors and patients are finding that mobile devices and apps are the perfect way to stay up to speed and connected for a better healthcare picture overall.

What’s Stressing IT Teams in Healthcare?

This rapid pace of change is great for caregivers and patients, but it’s concerning to the people whose job it is to make sure the organization is compliant with privacy requirements like HIPAA regulations and to provide strong — but not restrictive — security.

Ongoing staff training around secure mobile messaging practices is critical, but really, I want my doctor focused on my health, not managing technology or worrying about security threats. Which is why it’s so important that healthcare IT teams can provide staff with all the right mobile tools, and manage the whole mobile environment with tight controls and regulated-level security.

Helping Caregivers Focus on Care

I’m always proud to point to examples of how BlackBerry helps organizations that help others.

Rocky Mountain Human Services (RMHS) is a healthcare organization in Denver that provides a whole range of support services to children and families with mental health issues and brain injuries. If you need a quick boost of your faith in humanity check out their success stories.

Several months ago, they took stock of the kinds of industry trends I’m talking about, but more importantly, to the changing needs of their staff and clients. The result was that they decided to upgrade their smartphones and their overall approach to enterprise mobility management (EMM). Their solution would have to be cost-effective and make it easy to stay compliant with any and all regulations, now and down the line.

Most of their employees are out in the field, doing home visits and travelling from one location to another to be with their patients. They literally never leave home without their smartphones. More and more, they wanted to loop in their colleagues and managers through multiple channels (including mobile video conferencing) for quick consultations, get on-the-spot access to their patients’ histories for faster diagnosis and treatment, and update records and documentation safely and securely.

BES10 and BlackBerry 10 smartphones turned out to be exactly what they needed to get current, prepare for tomorrow, and stay safe in the process.

We’ve always been close to the healthcare world, and as you might know, we’re making important new investments in this space. Read the full case study and find out more about why healthcare organizations like this one trust BlackBerry for EMM.

]]>http://bizblog.blackberry.com/2014/07/case-study-healthcare/feed/0Generic_Stock_SPY0004678_MB_Q_lowrestonyevanbbRHMS_MDM_Security_MDMRMHS_logoBlackBerry Provides Healthy Advice to Health Care Professionalshttp://bizblog.blackberry.com/2014/02/blackberry-provides-healthy-advice-to-health-care-professionals/
http://bizblog.blackberry.com/2014/02/blackberry-provides-healthy-advice-to-health-care-professionals/#commentsMon, 24 Feb 2014 13:10:04 +0000http://bizblog.blackberry.com/?p=12880/ Read More]]>This week, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) is convening thousands of IT professionals, clinicians and health care executives from around the world for its annual educational conference. Mobility is a hot topic at this year’s event as decision makers consider the risks associated with compromising security and patient privacy.

A recent SANS-Norse Report shows that 375 healthcare organizations in the U.S. had been compromised between September 2012 and October 2013. In addition, the 2013 HIMSS Security Survey found that 19 percent of respondents reported that they had a security breach in the last year.

Given these report findings on security breaches and compromises, it’s increasingly important that you ask these questions as you investigate mobile solutions for your organization at HIMSS14:

1. Is the solution easy for doctors, nurses and staff to use? In a field where seconds are precious, the ability to share data faster and respond more quickly can save lives. You want to have a solution that deters health care professionals from turning to insecure, third-party tools to prioritize speed and efficiency over security.

2. Is the security built in from the ground up? The most secure mobile connectivity requires technology and providers that have security in their DNA. Solutions that are pieced together are more susceptible to data breaches.

3. Has the security been tested and proven? Hospitals, insurers and beyond are feeling the pressure to give employees the freedom and familiarity of bring your own device (BYOD) without compromising security. As mobile platform providers begin to infiltrate health care, organizations must be wary of untested and unproven solutions that can put their mobile infrastructure at risk.

At BlackBerry, we can answer “yes” to all of these questions, which is why many of the world’s top health care organizations are upgrading to BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 (BES10) and/or BlackBerry 10 devices. The BlackBerry platform is the only one that can offer a true end-to-end security solution at the device, server and network level, which is particularly crucial in a regulated industry.

With BES10, the health care industry can manage and secure BlackBerry 10 smartphones, as well as iOS® and Android™ devices. No matter the device or platform, BES10 ensures that doctors, nurses and other health care professionals are productive, their data remains secure and patient data is private.

We would like to invite you to meet Bryan Lee, VP, Enterprise during HIMSS, you can find him at booth # 4592. Share your thoughts before, during and after the event on @BlackBerry4Biz

We always look forward to attending HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) conference and to contributing to the exciting things that are happening in the healthcare industry. This year’s conference, held in New Orleans, focused on providing global leadership for the optimal use of IT and management systems for the betterment of healthcare. More than just an event, HIMSS is a not-for-profit organization representing nearly 50,000 individual members as well as 570 corporate members.

BlackBerry technology has a legacy in the healthcare industry, and we’re very excited about the potential that BlackBerry 10 has to transform patient care and access to data. With Machine to Machine (or M2M) as a hot topic at this year’s conference, we fit right in with our new QNX-based mobile computing platform. At the BlackBerry Booth attendees were able to get hands-on with BlackBerry 10 as well as to explore what we have to offer the nursing industry including secure messaging, Voice over IP (VOIP), barcode scanning, multi-user capabilities, and a strong mobile ecosystem.

Apps are all the rage in the consumer space, but people often forget about the thousands of mission critical applications that never hit an app store like the BlackBerry® App World™ storefront. These enterprise applications can increase productivity, improve communications, or in the case of Claron Technology’s Nil Medical application for BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet, potentially help save lives.

The information within these apps needs to be not only secure, but easily updated, automatically pushed out, monitored, and archived, which is facilitated via the BlackBerry platform. In an environment where the transfer of vital information is managed through technology, BlackBerry technology provides a secure communication infrastructure for health-care providers. As Claudio Gatti, co-founder and co-CEO of Claron put it, “BlackBerry smartphones are widely used in the medical environment, and we anticipate that the new Nil app for the BlackBerry PlayBook will be very popular among IT managers and physicians in today’s fast-paced, HIPAA-conscious world.”

With this launch, Claron joins a number of other major healthcare technology vendors like Epocrates, Horizon (McKesson) and Allscripts who are all leveraging the BlackBerry platform to mobilize their offerings. In fact, BlackBerry solutions for Healthcare have been a strong part of our overall enterprise offering for many years, and as Peter Ng, Sr. Director, Alliances Strategy & Business Development at Research In Motion® (RIM®) stated: “We’re pleased that Claron is expanding support for the BlackBerry platform with their new Nil app for the BlackBerry PlayBook which offers Nil customers an ultra-portable design, a high resolution display for sharp viewing, and delivers the responsive performance needed for handling medical images”

What mission critical applications does your organization run on BlackBerry technology? What applications do you see becoming increasingly portable? Are there different application requirements for tablets vs. smartphones? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

The BlackBerry World™ conference is coming up fast (May 3-5 in Orlando, Florida), and resident “Nursing Expert” Sara and I have been busy working away at our sessions for the healthcare professionals attending this year!

I’m looking forward to presenting using the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet in Clinical Environments on Tuesday May 3 at 2:15 pm – here’s a description of the session:

The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet is changing how clinicians access Electronic Health Records, view diagnostic images and earn their continuing medical education credits. When coupled with Clinical Collaboration tools on a BlackBerry® smartphones, such as receiving alerts and unified communication solutions, the change in workflow is compelling. In this session you will learn how mobile solutions are making a difference in today’s healthcare organizations and you will hear first-hand experiences of customers with successful deployments for clinical teams.

See the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet at work in a clinical scenario

Understand how it helps increase the speed of responses, helps decision-making and improves the quality of care

Hear about the full range of BlackBerry solutions for healthcare

Directly following that session, Sara and a few of our partners will be sharing “Clinical Collaboration on the BlackBerry platform – Nursing and Hospital Workflow” at 3:30 pm:

‘Clinical Collaboration’ on the BlackBerry platform means enabling nurses to access patient data, receive alerts and notifications, access reference tools, and collaborate with team members with voice or secure text. Hospital efficiencies can be improved including better communication, more efficient use of hospital equipment/space and improved patient care. In this session, learn how Wi-Fi® and SIM Optional/Dual-Mode BlackBerry smartphones are impacting healthcare organizations. You will have the opportunity to hear first-hand customer success stories of BlackBerry solutions for Nursing and Hospital Workflow and discuss healthcare application vendors.

See the latest mobile applications leading healthcare customers have deployed on BlackBerry smartphones

Discover best-practices for device consolidation on the BlackBerry smartphone

Take the opportunity to talk to healthcare technology innovation leaders and discover opportunities to make positive communication changes in your healthcare environment

Further your knowledge of Nursing and Hospital Workflow application vendors

So, the countdown is on! We’re really looking forward to connecting with healthcare innovators at BlackBerry World and discussing options for improving patient care through mobilization. Only four days until BlackBerry World begins, so be sure to register today!

What are you most interested in checking out at this year’s event? Is there anything in particular you’re looking to learn about? Let us know in the comments section of this post!

]]>http://bizblog.blackberry.com/2011/04/blackberry-world-healthcare-sessions/feed/0frase1BlackBerry World 2011Inside BlackBerry for Business Blog is at HIMSS!http://bizblog.blackberry.com/2011/02/blackberry-himss/
http://bizblog.blackberry.com/2011/02/blackberry-himss/#commentsWed, 23 Feb 2011 20:12:22 +0000http://bizblog.blackberry.com/?p=2323]]>

We’ve been having a great time at HIMSS (Healthcare Information Management Systems Society)! HIMSS is the annual Healthcare Industry show, where we go to meet with current and future customers, demo our new products and applications, and see what’s new in the healthcare industry.

This year, we’re exhibiting with a few of our solution partners: Vocera, Connexall®, and AmCom. We’re also happy to be showing off the upcoming BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet and its many uses within Healthcare.

We are also joined by some outstanding customers sharing their BlackBerry® solution success stories: Stony Brook University Medical Center, UPMC Mercy Hospital, Integris Health and CSC. Additionally, we’re excited to be premiering the above video that we’ve created featuring our customer, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre, showcasing the BlackBerry solution for Nursing.

If you’re at HIMSS, come check us out at our booth #2519. If you’re following the show from your office, check us out @BlackBerry4Biz, where we’re live-tweeting! You can also follow the hashtag #HIMSS11 for complete show updates.

Are you a healthcare professional? Are you attending HIMSS 2011? What do you think of the show so far?